Omnipresence: God is Omnipresent & Everywhere, Even in the Bathroom...

Have you ever had the feeling you were being watched? According to Christian theology, you are — Christians believe their god is omnipresent, which means that their god is in all places at all times. So wherever you are and whatever you are doing, God is right there, watching you. Yesterday, when you were picking your nose? God was watching you. Last week, when you were... well, God was watching you then, too. Why is God such a voyeur? Isn't such stalking behavior a little creepy?

The idea of omnipresence of immanence stands in stark contrast with the idea of God being "transcendent," or completely separate from and independent of the universe. The more God’s transcendence is emphasized the less God’s immanence can be understood and vice-versa. The need for both qualities can be seen in the other characteristics normally attributed to God. If God is infinite, then God must exist everywhere — including within us and within the universe. On the other hand, if God is absolutely perfect beyond all experience and understanding, then God must also be transcendent.

Because both of these qualities follow readily from other qualities, it would be very difficult to abandon either without also needing to abandon or at least seriously modify many other common attributes of God. Some Christian theologians and philosophers have been willing to make such a move, but most have not — and the result is a continuation of both of these attributes, constantly in tension. Outside of Christianity, there is less tension. Judaism conceives of a god that acts in history, but isn't completely omnipresent or completely transcendent. For Muslims, God is completely transcendent and "other," lacking any human qualities whatsoever.

I'm not sure that a god which is always watching, peeking, and spying on what you are doing or thinking is very healthy from a psychological perspective. Almost no one likes the idea of constant government surveillance, so why approve of constant divine surveillance? Even accepting Christian premises about their god creating the universe and humanity, this hardly justifies denying human beings even a modicum of personal space and privacy. Insofar as the Christian god is omnipresent, the Christian god is also a stalker, a peeping Tom, and a lech.